Abstract: In August 2007, China enacted an Anti-Monopoly Law, becoming one of roughly ninety nations to establish a comprehensive regulatory regime governing competition. Since the advent of China's economic reform program beginning three decades ago, China has been moving to integrate its economy within the global trading system. This article provides an overview of China's Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) emphasizing key areas of significant apparent divergence from U.S. antitrust policy. The article addresses the evolution of anti-monopoly policy in China and the United States, observing that, where differences exist, China's AML frequently reflects principles similar to those once embedded in U.S. antitrust policy, but which have been abandoned or modified by U.S. policymakers and courts in a sustained process of policymaking through trial and error. The article also examines specific areas of divergence between the AML and U.S. antitrust policy, describing how past U.S. policies, which find parallels in the AML, were modified or abandoned over time. Finally, the article concludes that in enacting the AML, Chinese policymakers aim to promote economic growth and innovation. It also expresses the hope that the U.S. experience, which was driven by the need to increase its own economic dynamism, may serve as an abiding point of reference to China's policymakers.

Abstract: Australia's new Rudd Government has indicated to business leaders that it intends to review various aspects of corporate law, including the imposition of personal liability on directors for corporate fault. Their concern is that the present corporate law regime is causing directors to be overly cautious in making decisions, to the detriment of the efficient operation of companies and the wellbeing of our economy. At the same time, the government acknowledges the importance of imposing appropriate sanctions where a company or its officers fail to meet required standards. These are universal concerns. To inform this debate, this article will look at the way in which key aspects of corporate law are dealt with internationally, and outline some reasons for convergence and divergence.

Abstract: This article argues that disability rights are a powerful lens through which to address the multiple forms of discrimination and subordination that women and children with disabilities face. A shift in the human rights paradigm that enables the different human rights treaties affecting women and children with disabilities to be implemented together, within an interlocking web of the human rights framework, will provide the necessary safeguards against multiple and cross cutting forms of discrimination against women and children with disabilities. At the same time, different social movements must come together at these points of intersection in order to create a more inclusive form of human rights practice that is sensitive to the multiple identities of women and children with disabilities and the different challenges that complicate those identities.

Abstract: Dr. Lee's keynote speech provides a brief history of disability rights as provided for by international human rights treaties. The speech focuses in particular on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”) and the recently enacted Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“CRPD”). The CRC was the first treaty to include a specific provision dealing with the rights of children with disabilities. In this speech, Dr. Lee takes the position that although the CRPD does not create new rights for persons with disabilities, it still represents an important step forward. Dr. Lee emphasizes that the CRPD establishes a legal framework that explicitly addresses the needs and situations of persons with disabilities.

Abstract: Former Vice-President of the Supreme People's Court of China, Cao Jianming, discusses IP enforcement issues at play in China five years after its entry to the World Trade Organization. Cao acknowledges problems and affirms progress in light of China's national policy of becoming an “innovation country” by 2020. He explains specific improvements provided to IPR protection by Supreme People's Court “Interpretations,” which are regulatory documents that have binding effect on the adjudicatory work of all courts. He addresses transparency, full compensation, temporary injunctions, post-trial infringement, and litigating technology-based disputes. Cao further summarizes the key tasks ahead for the judiciary.

Abstract: In Cambodia, the percentage of the population living with disabilities is one of the highest in the world. At least 650,000 Cambodians live with a disability, and the exact count may be as high as 1.4 million. The incidence of disability is also expected to increase in the future. Despite the fact that many Cambodians have at least one disability, the country does not have adequate legal provisions to protect the human rights of people with disabilities. There are no comprehensive laws that address disability issues. The few existing laws provide only implicit protections and some directly discriminate against people with disabilities

. The inadequacy of Cambodia's disability rights scheme is reflected in Cambodia's failure to comply with the new Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities ("Convention"), a treaty that Cambodia has already signed and is expected to ratify soon. To provide a minimal level of protection for people with disabilities, Cambodia's first critical move should be to pass the proposed disability law that the legislature has been considering since 2003. Cambodia should use the Convention's guidance to revise this draft law to provide a more comprehensive protective scheme for its most vulnerable citizens. This proposed law would improve the existing scheme of disability rights and bring Cambodia into substantial compliance with the Convention.

Abstract: China's economic growth has come at a high price: environmental and natural resource destruction. Presently, China's legal system is not prepared to protect China's environmental resources. China's State Council has expressed an interest in establishing a civil and administrative system to manage environmental matters. Some of the objectives expressed by the State Council could be achieved by creating a special tribunal to address environmental issues, similar to New Zealand's Environment Court. A specialized court promotes environmental protection, and specialization creates experts in a specific field, allowing for consistency among decisions. An environmental court will fit into China's current legal system because Chinese law expressly authorizes specialized courts. In fact, China already has specialized courts, including special maritime courts. The creation of a specialized court would not be a panacea for China's environmental problems, but it is a fundamental first step.

Abstract: Due to Japan's decreasing population numbers and low birth rate, the country's legal forces and social norms put tremendous pressure on women to have children. To meet these expectations, Japanese women frequently turn to new forms of medical assistance called Assisted Reproductive Technology (“ART”) to increase their ability to become mothers. ART includes such procedures as artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy. Although several of these methods are accepted by Japanese law and society, other forms of ART, including certain forms of artificial insemination and surrogacy, are strongly disapproved. Japan's current legal framework prevents women from accessing the full range of ART methods by restricting access to procedures that fail to conform to traditional standards on reproduction. Legal recognition of motherhood is also restricted to births performed in a narrow set of circumstances.

Whereas Japanese law and social norms strictly limit a woman's ability to utilize ART, laws provide men with greater access to ART procedures and broader recognition of fatherhood. This unequal treatment in the availability of ART on the basis of gender discriminates against Japanese women, violating both the Japanese Constitution and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (“CEDAW”). To correct this problem and protect Japanese women, the Japanese government must enact new legislation that recognizes modern concepts of parenthood and eliminates the discriminatory effect of its current laws.

Abstract: In late 2006, New Zealand's Parliament inserted Section 68 into the nation's Evidence Act 2006, providing for the first time a testimonial privilege specifically protecting journalists from compelled disclosure of their confidential sources. The privilege, commonly referred to as a shield law, has been met with approval from politicians, media commentators, and journalists, both in New Zealand and beyond.

While New Zealand's reporter shield law goes a long way toward extending press freedoms, it ultimately falls short of the country's historically robust commitment to the free flow of information. Section 68's most glaring shortcoming is the ease with which a judge can tear down its protections. A judicial determination that the public interest in the disclosure of the source outweighs the public interest in maintaining confidentiality will pierce the shield. Unfortunately, balancing tests such as the one codified in Section 68 have a track record of exploitation, often with fair trial concerns overriding free expression.

In that light, Section 68 should be strengthened for three purposes: 1) to reflect the nation's longstanding commitment to a free and vibrant media, 2) to satisfy the requirements of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, and 3) to accord with effective models from other democratic governments. Two relevant sources the country could mine for guidance include United States federal law and the newly enacted shield law in Washington State. New Zealand would be well served by observing not only the protective innovations of the two models, but also their shortcomings. The federal status quo in the U.S., should serve as a cautionary tale, both from policy and legal standpoints. Washington State's statute on the other hand, strikes an appropriate balance between the public interest in disclosure and the public interest in protecting journalists' sources.

Abstract: Australia's 1992 landmark case of Mabo v. The State of Queensland [No. 2] revoked the concept of terra nullius and for the first time since European colonization of the continent allowed indigenous Australians to obtain legal ownership of their traditional lands. The following year this groundbreaking decision became statutory law with the enactment of the Native Title Act (NTA) of 1993. The case law and the statutory act both failed, however, to adequately address the question of Aboriginal claims to sea properties. For many Australian Aboriginal groups, ownership of traditional lands does not abruptly end at a shoreline but extends to surrounding coast lines, intertidal zones, and offshore seas. This indigenous view is in stark contrast to Western concepts of property that have resulted in distinct bodies of law governing rights to the ownership of land versus rights to the ownership of sea.

The NTA recognizes exclusive Aboriginal property rights whether the traditional area is a land or sea property. The first case to test native title rights to sea property,The Commonwealth of Australia v. Yarmirr (“Croker Island”) held, however, that native title can be recognized without the right to exclude. This precedential decision continues to bar exclusive Aboriginal ownership of sea properties and denies Aboriginal management of natural resources of the sea regardless of whether the group provides historical evidence of ownership and management. This Comment argues that the Croker Island decision does not comply with the NTA, is based in an erroneous understanding of Aboriginal law and custom, and should be overturned. This Comment further argues that where an Aboriginal group successfully provides evidentiary proof of a traditionally practiced right to exclude, native title must recognize and protect an exclusionary right to traditional sea properties. Granting ownership of traditionally held properties is central to rectifying harms caused by Australia's historic policy of dispossession of Aboriginal properties and is necessary to promote Aboriginal sovereignty.